


Exposed

by Havepenwillimagine (starchan007)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-19
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-02-21 17:26:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2476352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starchan007/pseuds/Havepenwillimagine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“And what do you want to be when you grow up?” Since he was a little boy Jean Kirschtein had known the answer to that question. A police officer. It was all he’d ever dreamed of. And in a society like theirs, who wouldn’t want to be one? But not everything is as it seems. And as Jean is about to find out, the good guys are not always good, the bad guys are not always bad and secrets never stay buried forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jean slid back into his cruiser and tapped the touch panel on the dashboard. The car powered up with a slight humming noise and lifted off the ground. He had just finished settling a domestic dispute. A pair of twelve year old twins had gotten into a brief scuffle over who would get to take the new hoverboard for a spin around the block first. A few centuries ago it was hardly the kind of thing that would have warranted police attention. A few centuries ago a domestic dispute might’ve involved serious injury, screaming children and spouses, even weapons. But nothing like that happened anymore. Traits that led to those sorts of behaviors had been scientifically bred out, eliminated. In fact, the five minute shouting match with one kick to the shin was one of the most violent crimes Jean had seen in a week. He’d given a stern talking to both twins, especially the one who had thrown the kick and had also had a chat with the parents, about who to contact if this sort of errant behavior continued. It was becoming less and less common but occasionally there were those who needed to be “re-wired”. 

It was – from what Jean had been told at least – a painless procedure that would simply negate the parts of the brain that were causing any abnormal activity like a propensity for violence or dishonesty that were too far above any standard levels. Jean had never known of anyone needing it to be done and he guessed, at this point, that it was used as more of a scare tactic for children who didn’t listen to their parents. Mentioning it had certainly done the trick this time anyways; Jean had casually dropped the word in his lecture and found both boys suddenly sitting up a little straighter and paying a little more attention.

It hadn’t taken very long at all and now he was on his way back to the station, the car driving itself from the programmed directions Jean had sent it from his Link antennae – a standard body modification that allowed everything from accessing the web on the go, with the information being displayed in the user’s peripheral vision to being able to send messages in the form of thoughts to specific people. 

There had been some concern when Links had been introduced a few decades ago as to how much the government could use it. After several years of legal battles a consensus had been reached; GPS features were not included in the Link programming unless an individual had a criminal record and, more importantly, the government – bound both by law and technology limitations – could not use the Links to “hack” a person’s brain. In addition to Links –which were still optional – it was now mandatory for children 1 year and older to have an identification chip implanted. The chip didn’t have any online features but gave information such as a person’s name, age, blood type, anything emergency or law personnel would need to access when scanned. 

All in all, the two were now an integral part of life. There were the occasional people who opted not to get Links but life was always more difficult for them. They couldn’t transfer money with a thought or use the online avatar capabilities, or even go into lucid dream states, letting their bodies rest while their minds remained active. Jean had never understood these people. Advances in technology were a gift, and they made his job easier to boot.

It probably seemed boring to some, but Jean enjoyed his job. He had worked very hard to get where he was. After all, despite there being hardly any crime, only the best could become police officers. They had to be physically fit and smart – but not too smart of course. Anyone with exceedingly high intelligence levels was placed on a list and would spend the rest of their lives being carefully monitored by the government. Which is why Jean would take to his grave the fact that he had, perhaps, fudged a few of the answers on some of his entrance tests and had been doing a similar thing on nearly every test he had taken since he was old enough to understand that being better than his classmates was not necessarily a good thing. 

He understood the need for this particular piece of legislation on some level – after all, many of history’s most dangerous perpetrators had been extremely intelligent, and much research had found that highly intelligent people were more likely to be mentally unstable – but Jean was neither a criminal nor insane. So he figured it would be best to keep that little tidbit to himself. And it had worked out just fine. Now with almost two years on the force, Jean was just about as content with his lot in life as it was possible to be. Police were paid well, the job was easy and – for some reason that Jean had never been able to figure out, as they didn’t really _do_ much – prestigious. He had everything he could ask for. 

Which is probably why some higher power decided it was the perfect time for all of that to be turned on its head. 

He was nearly back to the station when an alert came through his Link, flashing up before his eyes. It seemed that someone was trying to hack into one of the local banks…whoever they were, they weren’t doing a very good job at it. They hadn’t even bothered to put out a jamming signal, which meant that police were able retrace the signal to the wannabe hacker’s Link and thus the café who’s Immersive Port they were using. Jean had to admit it was a little strange. Occurrences like this were very rare. But he was the closest to the scene so he would have to be the one to respond. He tapped the console again, setting the lights on the top of his cruiser flashing and speeding down the streets towards the café. It would take a special sort of stupid to try a stunt like this; money was completely digitized these days. It would be child’s play to track any stolen money back to whomever had stolen it. So why bother? 

Maybe it was just some mischievous teen doing it on a dare. People were still people after all, and teenagers would do what teenagers would do. In retrospect, the entire incident should’ve sent up red flags to Jean. He should’ve gone in expecting something, but he didn’t. Jean walked up to the owner behind the counter and identified himself. He knew that as he spoke a copy of his police record would be showing up via the owner’s Link to verify his credentials. 

Jean quickly explained the situation and asked the woman to point him in the direction of Port Six and to give him the shutdown key for the port. Not having any reason not to, the woman did as she was told. Jean wasn’t sure what or who he was expecting to find at Port Six, but for some reason the 5’6 male with not-quite-shoulder-length blond hair did not fit this nonexistent mental image. The blond was reclined in the standard black Immersive Port chair. His eyes were rolled back and the light on his antennae was a solid blue. Jean didn’t try to wake him – it wouldn’t make much difference. That was why Immersive Ports were only available in licensed establishments; using one left the user completely out of touch with reality. Instead Jean inserted the shut-off key into the slot near the headrest, immediately shutting down the port. 

The blue light on the male’s antennae went out and he blinked a few times before looking up at Jean with bright blue eyes and an indulgent smile, as if he had been expecting not only this situation but Jean himself. 

“Hello,” he said pleasantly. “Are you here to arrest me officer?” Jean was thrown off by the casual demeanor and it took him a second to wipe the confused look off his face and regain his composure. 

“As a matter of fact I am. Put your hands out, wrists up,” he instructed. His mind had skipped the red flags in favor of warning bells. Something about all of this was very, very wrong. He kept expecting some sort of explosion or something. But the blond complied quietly, allowing Jean to cuff him and scan his identification chip – identifying him as Alexander Adams – and be led out to the cruiser. He didn’t say anything else but Jean was distinctly aware of those blue eyes on him.

_“They’re tracking you, you know,”_

Jean heard the words as clearly as if they’d been spoken, and yet that couldn’t be possible because the panel between Jean and the man he had just arrested was completely sound proof. But it was just as unlikely that he’d spoken via Link because when he was on duty Jean’s Link was programmed to reject anything but communications from the station or other officers. But when he heard the voice again and he turned his head to glance through the clear pane Adams was looking down at his feet. And his mouth wasn’t moving.

_“We don’t have much time.”_

 _“What are you talking about? How did you hack my Link?”_ he demanded. 

_“I didn’t hack it. My Link is encrypted as an officer’s. Our conversation is encrypted as well. It’ll playback as white noise. The ID chip you scanned is fake as well. My name is Armin Arlert. I’m here to help you.”_

__For some reason, _“It’s illegal to modify your ID chip,”_ was the best response Jean could come up with.

_“So is communicating with me at all before getting me into an interrogation room. Yet here we are,”_ Alexander – no, Armin – countered. 

Jean didn’t know how to reply to that. The blond was right. Just having this conversation – whether there was a record of it or not – was against the law. And he couldn’t help but be intrigued.

_“What do you mean you’re here to help me?”_ he asked.

 _“There isn’t much time to explain. I promise I can give you answers later, but you’ll need to trust me for now,”_ Armin said. Jean was – obviously – skeptical.

 _“And why the hell would I do that?”_ Armin was quiet for a few seconds as if deciding his next move. 

_“Because we can tell you what really happened to Marco Bodt.”_

If Jean had been manually driving the vehicle he would’ve slammed the brakes. His best friend and should-have-been partner on the force had been killed during training. Jean’s quick thinking had saved his own life, and there had never been any satisfactory explanations for what had happened. In fact, it had been quietly hushed up. No one wanted to read about a police trainee being killed in the line of duty, let alone before.

 _“Start talking. And don’t give me that ‘we don’t have time’ bullshit.”_ Jean could see Armin worrying his lower lip between his teeth. He gave a shake of his head and Jean had a sudden realization that perhaps his was not the only voice bouncing around Armin’s skull. There was something larger going on here. 

_“Fuck it. I want answers, but I’ll give you a pass for now. You said we. Who is we?”_ Armin looked up at him as if surprised he had let the train of thought go. He looked relieved as well. 

_“I guess you could say we’re a sort of special forces team. You might know us better as Scouts.”_

Scouts. 

Jean felt like someone had dropped a ball of lead into his stomach. These people were bad. Dangerous. They were like the monsters under beds, the rejects of society. The Scouting Legion had supposedly been part of the government at one point, a special forces team who carried out dangerous missions in the name of peace and who helped bring the world to order. And then something happened. Their commander defected and took all of those elite, perfectly trained soldiers and fighters with them. They were responsible for nearly every major terrorist attack in the last ten years. And Jean had one of them sitting in his back seat, claiming to be there to help him. 

_“If I was going to kill you I would’ve done it already,”_ Armin said, and Jean once again had the unnerving feeling that his Link had been hacked and this man was reading his thoughts. 

_“Then what do you want?”_ If Jean had spoken out loud it probably would have come out as a croak. He did not consider himself a coward but something told him this was not a prank and that he should take Mr. Arlert very seriously indeed. 

_“I tried to tell you, I’m here to help. And we shouldn’t go back to the police station but it looks like now we might not have a choice. If my estimation is correct we have approximately two minutes to arrival?”_ Jean looked down at the display panel and nodded. When he glanced back at Armin there was a certain set to the blond’s mouth that told him he wouldn’t like what was coming next.

_“Right. Then they’ll be waiting for you-”_

_“Who is they?”_

_“Government agents. Or you own men, I’m not sure. Like I said, you’re being tracked. You have been since before you made the force.”_

_“That’s horseshit, what reason do they have to-”_

_“Jean! I told you I will give you all the answers you want later but right now we are sitting in a death trap and either you’re going to listen to me or we’re both going to die, understand?”_ And there was such a note of finality in Armin’s voice that Jean found himself quietly complying. Armin was quiet for a moment, thinking apparently. 

_“I’m going to have to kill you,”_ he finally said.

“What?!” Jean spoke aloud without even realizing it and then shook his head. 

_“What the fuck are you talking about?”_

_“They want you dead anyways, trust me. But they want to be the ones to do it. They want to make an example of you. We’re not going to give them that chance. In fact…no, this is good. This is good. But I’m going to have to kill you. You’ll be fine. I won’t damage your brain at all so they can patch you right back up, you won’t even feel a thing. Probably. It’s harmless,”_ Armin said, as if they were talking about the weather and not about abruptly ending Jean’s life over some mysterious conspiracy that one person whom he had just met and arrested had told him existed. 

_“Well it’s easy for you to say. You’re not the one who’s apparently about to die,”_ Jean retorted acidly. 

In the back of his head, part of him was still wondering why he was still going along with this. The guy was obviously crazy, that was all. Except some other, perhaps more primitive part of Jean knew that wasn’t true. Something else occurred to him though. 

_“Besides, won’t they be suspicious if you kill me and take my body?”_ Jean asked and glanced at the ETA display. 

_“Hm…yes. I suppose that could be an issue. I’ll have to leave you with them then. I’m almost sure they won’t try to resuscitate you. As I said before, they want you dead. And while they won’t be happy about having to write your death as an act of heroism, their end game is still achieved.”_

He apparently saw the look Jean was throwing him and hastened to explain. 

_“What I mean is I’ll leave your body with them and before they can discard it my team and I will get you out and replace it with another.”_

To say that Jean was wary of this plan was a hell of an understatement. It left so much to chance. And how was Armin so sure about their motives anyways? The cruiser pulled into the police station. There were a few other officers milling about, getting into or out of their cruisers, not to mention all the security cameras. 

_“You listen to me. I like being alive. For some stupid reason I’m trusting you. If this goes bad I swear to god I will find some way to make your life a living hell, even if I have to wait until another lifetime.”_ Jean said. When he looked up to the glass Armin was looking at him intently. There was also a certain shine to his blue eyes, as if Jean had just said something that pleased him or fulfilled some unspoken expectation. 

_“I’ll do my best to ensure that doesn’t happen.”_ He said. 

Though it was not a promise and there was no guarantee that anything would go according to this half-baked plan, Jean believed him. 

_“How are you going to get out of those cuffs anyways?”_

_“Leave that to me.”_

Jean got out and opened the back of the cruiser to let Armin out as well. He was met with a kick to the chest which sent him sprawling onto the concrete. Before Jean or anyone else knew how to react Armin had grabbed his gun and was kneeling on his chest with it pointed at his forehead. With his own firearm pointed at him, it occurred to him how idiotic it was to give police lethal weapons in a world where violent crime was nearly nonexistent… He didn’t have to look around to know that everyone’s eyes were on Armin now, and likely their stunners as well.

“Anyone moves and I kill him,” the blond said calmly. 

Armin got off him, somehow managing to keep an eye on everything and everyone it seemed as he told Jean to get up. Jean complied. He realized how stupid this was. He had just put himself in the hands of a killer. Sure, Armin looked innocent enough, but Jean had no doubts he’d pull the trigger if he felt he needed to. Armin instructed him to turn around, keeping the weapon pressed to his skull as he did. Not once did Jean feel the pressure of it waver. 

“What are you doing kid? Put the weapon down and we can settle this like civilized people!” Jean recognized his chief, Nile Dok speaking. 

“I’m afraid that’s not an option,” Armin replied. “Though I appreciate the gesture, false though it may be.” Jean guessed it would be easy to talk back to an entire police battalion all pointing their weapons at you when you had one of their own to use as a meat shield. 

_“Can’t you do something about this Kirschtein? You were at the top of your class dammit! Disarm him!”_

_“I’m waiting for an opening sir. Keep talking to him,”_ Jean Linked back to his CO, sending a thought to Armin a split second later. _“They’re not going to buy it if I just stand here much longer. I know how to disarm you and they all know it,”_

 _“I know. Just a few more seconds and I’ll give you an opening. Disarm me and I’ll end this.”_ Jean let his silence serve as agreement. 

“Alright, you got me. There’s no way you’ll walk away from this a free man. But maybe we can arrange something that suits everyone. You might not even have to be re-wired.” An empty promise of course, but perhaps they were banking on the fact that Armin might fall for it. 

“I can assure you that I won’t be being re-wired. And I think I’ll be walking away from this every bit as free as I am now,” Armin said confidently. 

_“I promise we’ll come back for you.”_

Barely had the words entered Jean’s mind when Armin turned his head just the slightest to look at a black transporter barreling around the corner and careening into the lot. At the same time, the pressure of the gun lightened. Jean took his chance, instinct overwriting the fear that he was indeed about to be killed. He whipped around, snatching the gun from Armin’s hand. After that everything seemed to happen both very quickly and very slowly at the same time. With one arm Armin knocked Jean’s hand away. With the other he reached for something at his waist. The blade extended out of nowhere. 

When Jean looked down he saw that it had run him right through. Blood was already seeping down the blade. A heart wound then. That little bastard had lied; it hurt like hell. And that was the last thought he would remember having before he crumpled to the pavement. The police opened fire but Armin was already slipping into the newcomer’s vehicle and they were already pulling away. Jean’s body lay on the sidewalk, blood blossoming from the wound in his chest as he stared blankly at the blue sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, after my first foray into the world of Jearmin fics, I've come back for more! This time with what is (I hope at least) a more original plotline to keep you all entertained! I also wanted to play around with Armin's character a little because I like confident Armin nearly as much as I like shy Armin (though obviously this story is from Jean's POV), so we'll see how that goes. Since I'm just starting out I'm not really sure how long it will be, but it will definitely be a multi-chapter fic. I only have Jearmin in the tags right now, but that's subject to change and I'll be sure to update the tags if/when that happens. As for the updating schedule, given how school and work are going for me right now I'm going to say it'll be updated bi-weekly, probably on Saturdays. Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Exposed!


	2. Chapter 2

Jean wondered if it was poetic somehow that the last thing he saw was blue and when he opened his eyes he saw the same. Only this time it wasn’t the sky, but Armin’s eyes, peering down at him. 

“Ah, see? I told you they could fix you back up,” he said. Jean squinted at the bright lights of the medical facility as Armin moved away. 

“You stabbed me,” Jean said, sitting up and looking down at his chest which was now perfectly healed except for a small white scar just above his heart. Armin blinked at him. 

“Well yes, if I recall the agreement was for me to kill you.” 

“I know that, but you stabbed me and it hurt like a bitch!” Armin’s face turned pink. 

“Well I’m sorry, but it had to be done. It’s not like I was trying to cause pain!” he said defensively. Jean supposed there wasn’t much he could do about it at this point. 

“Forget it. I’m guessing the rest of your plan when smoothly then?” he asked. Armin gave a noncommittal shrug. 

“More or less. We weren’t able to replace your body; there wasn’t enough time. But I doubt anything will come from it,” he said. Something bothered Jean about this answer but he decided not to argue. Armin hadn’t been wrong so far. 

At least not as far as he was aware. Given that Armin had made his last stand outside the police station it was hard to say whether or not there was ever going to be any attempt on Jean’s life. His commander had seemed pretty keen on getting him out of the situation. But then…it was Armin who he saw upon waking; not any of his fellow officers. Which meant his body had lain on some metal gurney somewhere until Armin and his ‘team’ came to retrieve it. That in itself was proof enough. 

“Okay, I played along with your games for long enough, you said you had answers. I want them now.” Armin bit his lip as he had in the back of the cruiser. In some way he seemed different now, almost less sure of himself. It was at odds with the confidence he had shown so easily earlier. 

“Well…I guess I can do that. Normally there’s a different sort of procedure to all this. In your case it was…last minute, to say the least. You’ll have to make a decision when we’re finished though. A… permanent one, I’m afraid,” Armin explained, sitting back in his seat.

Jean couldn’t say he hadn’t seen that coming. After all, he knew things and was – it occurred to him as he looked around the pristine facility – seeing things that he probably shouldn’t know about or be seeing. 

“Let me guess, join your little team or I kick it for good?” he asked. Armin looked horrified. 

“What? No! We’re not barbarians. If you decline our offer you’ll be relocated and your memories of this will be wiped.” 

“So…you’ll re-wire me instead?” he asked.

“Oh no, it’s not nearly that simple!” A new voice chimed in. 

Jean glanced up to see a woman with glasses peering at him as though he were some sort of science experiment. It creeped him out. Her eyes drifted down to his chest and he suddenly wished he still had a shirt. But he guessed that would be a problem, since his last one was probably lying in a trash bin somewhere, soaked with blood. 

“I hope you don’t mind, but I left a scar. It’s kind of a tradition around here,” she said. It hadn’t even occurred to him to be bothered by it, but now that she had brought it up he couldn’t help but wonder what it was doing there. 

“Tradition?” He asked. She nodded. 

“When one of us dies in the field we like to keep a scar as a memento,” she explained. Armin put a hand to his face. 

“I tried to tell her to fix it since you haven’t even made a choice yet, but she wouldn’t listen. She’s convinced you’ll stay.” 

“Oh he will,” the woman said confidently. “Anyways, if you choose not to we don’t rewire you. For starters, that’s for correcting behaviors and it’s almost as bad as a lobotomy,” she said with a note of disgust in her voice. 

The word was unfamiliar to Jean so he sent a thought to his Link for a definition. Except nothing happened. His face must’ve given away his surprise because Armin smiled somewhat sheepishly. 

“I was wondering when you were going to notice that. For most of us it was the first thing we noticed,” he said. “We had to disable your Link for the time being so you couldn’t be tracked or anything like that. Once we wire it into our system we’ll reactivate it. If you stay that is,” he tacked on hastily. For some reason Jean felt defensive over this. 

“I use my Link when I need it. I don’t keep it up all the time; it crowds my line of sight and distracts me,” he said in what was perhaps and unnecessarily testy tone of voice. He felt like things were quickly spiraling out of his control and since he knew he had very little of that at the moment, he didn’t like it. “Okay, stop, stop, stop. Forget the link, forget the rewiring or lobotomy or whatever the hell you called it. Just tell me what happened to Marco,” he demanded. 

“Alright, alright. Calm down. No one is keeping anything from you intentionally. Like I said this isn’t the usual process for this sort of thing so we’re a little disorganized,” Armin said in a tone that should’ve been infuriatingly gentle but was soothing instead.

“Fine. Just start from the top and start explaining, okay?” Armin took a deep breath and nodded. 

“It’s hard to get much of anything past the government these days. That’s why most of us are here; we didn’t fit the cookie cutter standards they wanted. Almost all of us were candidates for rewiring, or worse. It happens more often than you’d think and much more often than they’d like you to know. But they keep track of anyone who’s above average on any level, who’s too smart to be obedient or too aggressive to be peaceful. And you know that, which is why you lied and you purposely threw a few points here and there on your tests,” Armin said. Jean stiffened. How did he know that? Armin gave a sheepish smile.

“We’ve been watching you, we found out almost everything. And the government has been watching you even longer. They’re corrupt but they aren’t stupid. When you applied for your job as an officer they looked at everything about you. They analyzed your test scores from when you were a child and saw that your scores started dropping. I’ll hand it to you, it was well done. You’re very clever Jean. But so are they. So they had an idea about you, but they couldn’t prove it. After all, you’d scored consistently in the average range on every test from puberty to adulthood, and of course after that they stop administering those tests. 

They needed a way to prove it, because you were a danger to them. If you were smart enough to lie on their brilliant tests and fall just under the radar, perhaps other people would too. And maybe you didn’t have any ambitions to collapse the government from the inside, but maybe someone else would learn from you and do so. They needed to test you. So they set you up while you were still in the academy. They put you in a life threatening situation to see if you were really as smart as they thought you were. If you weren’t well…then you’d have gone the same way as your friend,” Armin said. Jean’s hands were clenched in his lap. He was torn between not being able to believe and not seeing an alternative explanation. 

“He was harmless. He didn’t do a goddam thing to anybody. He didn’t even want the fucking job because it was easy like I did. He wanted to help people, and you’re telling me they killed him, just to fucking test me?” he whispered. Armin tentatively reached out and put a hand on his forearm. Jean jerked away as if he’d been burned. 

“Get your fucking hands off me!” He launched himself off the examination table and looked around for something to put on. 

“Jean, calm down!” Armin said. 

“Calm down? How the hell am I supposed to calm down? What did you bring me here for? Why did you have to tell me all that shit?” he demanded. 

“They were going to kill you! Don’t you get that?” Armin argued. 

“Yeah, thank you, you’re my fucking hero. So now what? I don’t exist out there anymore, they think I’m dead. I just found out my best friend got killed because of me and now my only options are being your puppet or letting you wipe my brain!” Armin opened his mouth to reply but another voice spoke first. 

“Well, he’s angry, that’s for sure,” they said. Armin turned and frowned. 

“Captain Levi…what are you doing here?” he asked. The man named Levi raised an eyebrow. 

“Hanji told me he was causing a scene. I figured I should come talk to him. You’ve been here since you got back. Why don’t you go shower and find Jaeger? He’s looking for you,” he said. Armin looked as though he’d argue for a moment, and then he gave Jean one last glance and left. Jean stared after him and then turned to face the newcomer.

“So, you’re all pissed off because you got your friend killed,” Levi said plainly, calmly taking a seat in the chair Armin had been occupying. Jean felt as though he might explode again. Of course he was angry! And hurt and feeling rather betrayed. But before he could form a coherent response, Levi continued. 

“That’s good. You should be. But not at yourself. Be pissed off at the people who did it. Don’t waste your time feeling sorry for yourself or him. Put that anger to use and _do_ something about it. That’s what we brought you here for. You’re smart, you’re strong, you’re a good fighter, and you’ve got a reason to fight along side us. Make no mistake Jean Kirschtein. This isn’t the police, we aren’t the government. We work above it, outside of it. If you choose to stay we’ll ask you to do things that serve our purpose and further our agenda, but you won’t be anyone’s puppet, understand?” Levi looked up at him shrewdly. 

Perhaps it was his nature, but his words inspired something in Jean, something that cooled his rage from molten lava to obsidian, sharp and cool; a thing he could form into something deadly. Levi seemed satisfied with either his silence or the change in his expression because he stood up. 

“Good, now that that’s settled we can have Hanji link you back up. I’ll send Armin back this way and he can show you around,” he said and moved towards the door. Before he left he paused and glanced back at Jean. “And before you take any of that anger out on him again, just remember that he risked his own life getting you out of there. Maybe we could’ve found someone better, easier to get to, but he insisted on you. Don’t take that lightly.” And then he was gone, leaving Jean a bit more certain about his future but still full of a tangled mess of emotions. Hanji came back in from a side room and smiled brightly. 

“All set to continue?” she asked. Jean regarded her somewhat warily and nodded. 

He got the feeling that she enjoyed her job just a little too much. Later, when his Link was back on – though the interface was quite a bit different from the one he had grown up using – and he was tugging a fresh white cotton shirt over his head, he heard the door to the Med wing slide open again. Armin was back. He glanced up at Jean, but his expression was inscrutable. The air felt tense. Jean noticed that Hanji had disappeared again. 

“Look I’m…sorry about earlier. It’s just…a lot to take in,” he finally said. Armin was silent, but after a few seconds he shrugged. 

“It’s alright. I just expected you to take it better,” he said. Though Armin said it with no venom in his voice, for some reason it still stung Jean, as though he had failed the same sort of unspoken test he had passed with such ease earlier. 

“Anyways, I’ll show you around. Or do you want to eat first?” Armin asked. As curious as Jean was about everything, he couldn’t actually remember the last time he had eaten, and being killed seemed to have taken a lot out of him. 

“Food first,” he said. 

“Alright. It’s late but maybe some of the other teams will be there. Eren and Mikasa should be anyways.” 

“You keep talking about teams. How does all that work?” Jean asked, following Armin out the sliding door. 

“Most people here work in teams of two, though occasionally there are those who work better alone or missions that need three or more, as your extraction did. The people I was with then, Eren and Mikasa, are a team. So are Sasha and Connie, Reiner and Bertholdt, Petra and Oluo…well, you’ll meet everyone eventually,” the blond explained. 

“What about you? Who’s your partner?” Jean asked, wondering if perhaps Armin was one of the few who did better alone. Armin frowned, his forehead creasing slightly. 

“I don’t have one. That’s…part of the reason we brought you in,” Jean raised an eyebrow. 

“Really? I mean Levi said you picked me or whatever, but why me?” he asked. 

Armin didn’t say anything and as luck had it, Jean never got an answer because they entered the mess hall just a few seconds later. It was all but empty, except for two others sitting at a table across the room. Armin pointed him in the direction of the food and then motioned over to the pair at the table telling him to come there when he was done. Jean watched him go and watched the way he sat down beside the two, easily joining their conversation. Something seemed instantly different about him, like that confidence from earlier was suddenly back. Jean shook his head. 

What did it matter? He didn’t even know the guy. He could’ve just as easily been imagining it.

He thought again about what Armin had said, about him being here to be his partner. Would they actually be able to work together? They had worked together just fine earlier but now there was a sort of tension between them. But perhaps that would go away soon enough. Maybe Armin was just sore about Jean losing his temper. The brunette piled his plate with whatever was there, not paying much attention to what it was before he went and took a seat with the others. 

“Jean, this is Eren and Mikasa,” Armin introduced as he sat down. Both of them took his proffered hand but Eren’s grip seemed unnecessarily tight. 

“I hope you’re worth all that trouble we went through getting to you,” he said. Jean met his eyes with a smirk. 

“Don’t worry. I am,” he said. 

“Well if you two are done trying to out-testosterone each other over dinner,” Armin finally said though he looked amused. 

Jean blinked, surprised by the expression on Armin’s face and released Eren’s hand, sitting down beside the blond. It was strangely difficult to get a read on the guy, and that was normally something Jean was very good at. Jean wondered…Armin had mentioned that all of them were here because they didn’t fit into what the government wanted it’s citizens to be…perhaps this was part of why Armin was here? Jean had read about several mental disorders that were far less common these days but still known to crop up in rare cases. Perhaps Armin had one? Though that wouldn’t make him a very stable operative in the field, would it? And it didn’t seem to be an extreme, just slight shift of his attitude or personality here and there. Well…if they ever got close and ended up working on a team, maybe he’d ask him. 

Dinner wasn’t unpleasant, and Jean found the food to be quite good – much better than the pre-prepared meals or supplement cubes he usually stuck to. He had never realized how bad mashed potato flavored supplement cubes tasted until he had the real thing in his mouth. 

“It’s good isn’t it?” Armin asked. Jean nodded, not trusting himself to speak with his mouth full of food. 

“They used to use the processed stuff here but after a while, especially when we found out that some of our members weren’t from the cities, it became easier and more convenient to grow our own food,” Armin explained.

“You grow it?” Jean asked after he swallowed. Surely they couldn’t mean actually planting it in the ground and harvesting it themselves…that was such an antiquated method. 

“Yeah, and since you’re a rookie you’ll be spending plenty of time doing it,” Eren said confidently. Armin shifted in his seat and Eren winced and then glared at him, giving Jean the impression that Armin had just kicked him under the table. 

“He’s probably not wrong though. Usually those who are still in training tend to the fields as well. It’s a balance. We teach you what we know and you help feed everyone,” Mikasa explained. Jean took another look at her as she spoke. She was quite pretty but there was a sort of shadow in her eyes that made Jean wary. She was a killer, he could tell. 

“And anyway, it’s not quite as old fashioned as it sounds. We don’t have the facilities to engineer the plant products like they do for pre-packaged meals but we outfitted the cavern we use with panels that allow us to manipulate growing periods and such. What used to take farmers entire growing seasons to produce we can get finished in a few days,” Armin clarified. But Jean was no longer interested in the history lesson or how they grew their vegetables. Armin had said cavern. For the first time Jean wondered where they were. 

“Are we…underground?” he asked. Eren rolled his eyes. 

“I thought you said he was smart Armin,” he said. Jean shot him a dirty look but ignored him. 

“Yes and no, actually. This place started as a bunker built into the side of a mountain during one of the Great Wars. The Scouts found it and expanded it. Now it’s a complex system of caves.” Jean frowned. 

“But…doesn’t that make it vulnerable to cave-ins? What if it were attacked? There’s a risk of the whole thing collapsing. And if it’s an old military bunker, doesn’t that make it easy to find?” Jean protested. Armin shot a somewhat smug look in Eren’s direction before continuing. 

“No, not at all actually. We’re ah…a bit too far north for anyone to come venturing, and it’s pretty easy to lose people in the weather up here if you know where you’re going. As for cave-ins, it was originally built to withstand a nuclear bomb. Obviously there are worse weapons out there now, but it was pretty sturdy to begin with and we fortified it with the best technology we could get our hands on. It’s probably not impenetrable, but damn close.” Jean supposed it was impressive. Looking around it didn’t feel like they were tucked into the side of a large pile of earth and rocks. 

“Too far north…where exactly is that?” 

“Up in the Stohess Mountain range. I’m sure you know this, but since the climate shifted most people consider anything north of Trost to be no man’s land. They’d have to be pretty desperate to try and follow us up here.” 

Now Jean was impressed; they’d moved all these men and supplies far enough north that it probably made most of their defenses unnecessary. They were so far removed from the populace and yet, he knew with absolute certainty, they managed to complete their objectives as if they were living in the heart of a major city. 

“Pretty cool huh? Luckily most of it was done by the time we got here. But I’m sure that suits you just fine. You joined the cops after all – you must like an easy life,” Eren said. Jean frowned. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked. Eren shrugged. “I’m just saying. Everyone knows why people want to be police officers. It’s so they can act all high and mighty and not actually have to do anything.” 

“That’s enough Eren,” Mikasa interrupted. 

“What? I’m just saying that-” 

“You’re just being a dick. Don’t get all up in arms just because Armin has a new partner.” Jean suddenly felt very uncomfortable. Armin looked as though he felt the same.

_“Come on. Just leave them to it. If you’re done I’ll show you around.”_ This time Jean was relieved rather than surprised to hear Armin’s voice in his head. He immediately got up to follow the blond, leaving the others behind them, still in a heated, although hushed debate. 

“What was that about?” he asked as they left the mess hall. “It’s nothing. Eren’s just opinionated. That’s part of what landed him here. He doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut. That and his aggression is off the charts,” Armin said with a bit of a smile. 

“What about you? How did you end up here?” Jean asked. 

“Me? Oh, it’s nothing exciting. I’m just too smart for my own good, or so they told me,” the blond said. “But unlike you I didn’t think to hide it. Why would I? I didn’t know about the lists when I was a kid, and I didn’t have any ambitions like yours so I just did my best. Unfortunately I was curious too. That was enough to get me noticed by the government, but also the Scouts. They watched me for a long time and then contacted me. I didn’t have anything left after my Grandpa died, so we faked my suicide, and I came here,” he said. It seemed simple enough, but something about it rubbed Jean the wrong way. He tucked it away in the back of his mind to think about later, along with many, many other things.

_“You’ll tell me the long version someday, right?”_ Armin turned and blinked at him and then gave him something of a smirk. 

_“When you earn it.”_

Jean understood the challenge in Armin’s tone, and for some reason, it pleased him. It had been a long time since he’d really been tested, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I'd like to apologize for the late update. Given that last weekend was Halloween, things were a little crazy. I've also been procrastinating writing this because well...it's not going as well as I'd hoped. I intend to persevere though, and I'll do my best to stick to a bi-weekly update schedule. Hopefully you all enjoyed chapter two and thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Hi everyone. I want to apologize for not having updated this story recently. I know that I promised I'd be keeping up with an update schedule, but the semester is getting the best of me, and on top of that I had a health scare last week. I promise I haven't forgotten about this fic and I will do my best to update it when I can. The semester is almost over and I should have more time then to work on it (I might even finish it before new year). I won't abandon it, and it won't go unfinished, so hopefully it's worth it for you to stick with it. Thanks for being awesome!


	4. Chapter 4

Jean had to admit, despite the limitations its locations seemed to pose to space, the base was really quite large. There was the mess hall and the med bay that he’d seen already, but the base also housed just about everything that Jean could ask for; a gym and training center, and barracks that were divvied up into smaller bunks for each team. The showers were just like the sonic shower he had used in his apartment in the city, though these were a bit bigger and, Jean suspected upon seeing the grime covered group that was making their way inside, more powerful. There was even a library, rare given that most print books had been destroyed throughout the years and those salvaged converted to digital forms that could be uploaded or downloaded, the knowledge being stored in a person’s mind without them having to go through the trouble of reading it. Still, Jean couldn’t deny the appeal that a library held. 

He picked up a book, frowning at the unfamiliarity of the texture of its binding. How much information did this book – just one of thousands – hold that humanity had thought lost to them? If they spared a thought to it at all, that is. Jean had to admit, he had never really done so before now. Why would he? The government, the supposed absolute force of good, had told them it wasn’t needed, that they were better off without such knowledge, that it would cloud their minds and prevent society from moving forward. Just like they had been told that society needed to be categorized and molded, and that the bad parts needed to be weeded out. 

For the first time in his life Jean realized what a sheep he’d been – blindly following along with everything he was told. No, it was worse than that. Because he hadn’t just followed along. He’d been stupid enough to think that he was smart enough to outsmart them, and he had just played right into their hands. The anger flared up inside him again, this time directed at himself. How could he have been so damn blind?! He- 

“Jean? Are you with me?” Armin asked, breaking Jean from his thoughts. 

“What?” he snapped. Armin raised an eyebrow.

“I asked if you could perhaps be more careful with that,” he said coolly. 

Jean frowned, realizing that he had tensed up, gripping the fragile book much more tightly than he should’ve been and took a deep breath, handing it back to Armin who set it gently on the shelf. 

“Sorry,” he muttered half-heartedly. Armin turned and looked at him closely, frowned and then turned away. Once again Jean found himself bothered by his inability to figure Armin out. 

“Do you like to read?” Armin finally asked. Jean shrugged. 

“Never really done much of it,” he said as Armin led him further into the large room.

“Oh,” was Armin’s only reply. Once again Jean got the distinct feeling he had disappointed him somehow. He was torn between irritation over the fact that he wasn’t living up to Armin’s unspoken expectations and that he was irritated by that fact. 

“Look, could you just be straightforward with me? I’ve been pretty straight with you, not that it matters since you already knew more about me than I did. I went along with your plan, I’m here and I’ve agreed to stay, so will you just tell me what you want from me already? I mean one second you seem fine and the next second I’m getting the cold shoulder. Is that just how it is with you or what? Because I have a feeling it’s going to make it a bit difficult to work with you,” Jean finally said. 

Armin stopped walking and turned back to him with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. Jean couldn’t shake the feeling that he was about to be chastised like a child. 

“Look I’m…sorry. I don’t…do well with new people, I guess,” he finally said. Jean frowned. That didn’t seem right… 

“But you were so chill when-” 

“I know! I know…It’s…it’s an act. And it’s easier when I know I have Eren and Mikasa to fall back on,” 

Armin said in a rush. But Eren and Mikasa weren’t here now, except through Link, and that wouldn’t help much in the long run if he and Jean had to get close enough to work as a team. Jean couldn’t say he felt bad for not having considered that this might be difficult for Armin; after all, Jean was the one who’d been pulled from his life and Armin the one who selected him. Still, they had to start somewhere. 

“Alright so…how do we make this easier then? Because right now we’re kind of a disaster waiting to happen and we haven’t even started any sort of training,” Jean said. Armin looked over to the book shelf to Jean’s left, biting his lip in a way Jean recognized. For some reason Jean couldn’t help but wondering if Armin realized he had this particular habit. Finally Armin looked back to him. 

“I’ll get back to you on that. Mostly…time, I think. There’s not really a quick fix for it,” he said. 

Jean supposed he could understand that. He knew he and Armin wouldn’t be reading each others every move overnight. Still, that would have to happen at some point if they wanted to do any good. He wondered the reason for this behavior though…had something happened that made Armin so distrustful of others? If so…how had he managed to become so integrated to life here? How had they just plucked him out of the blue like Armin said? There had to be something…

“You’re not going to work it out so easily,” Armin said. 

“What?” 

“Long version, remember? And I’ll tell you…when I’m ready. Can you stand to leave it at that?” Armin asked. His tone was light, but somehow Jean could sense a defensiveness in it, like he was expecting Jean to push further and was preparing to retaliate. 

“Alright. I can leave it at that. I won’t bring it up again,” Jean agreed, smirking at the flicker of surprise he saw in Armin’s eyes. 

“Guess you don’t know as much about me as you thought,” he replied. 

“Guess I don’t.” There was a moment of silence between them then, as if both of them were enjoying their own personal victories. Finally Armin cleared his throat. 

“So I’ll show you the Cavern then, and then Commander Erwin wants to see you when we’ve finished.” 

“Commander Erwin? You mean Levi’s not in charge?” Armin shook his head. 

“No, he’s second command, and Erwin’s partner. Those two have been here since the beginning,” he explained. Jean raised an eyebrow. 

“Since the beginning? But the Scouts have been around for at least the last ten years. Levi looks like he’s barely out of his twenties,” he protested. Armin flashed him a grim smile. 

“Well, he’s a little older than he looks, but not much. But let’s just say the military isn’t as picky as the police about who they recruit.” 

Jean felt a knot of something like disgust form in his stomach. How old had that guy been when he went into the service? Even today jobs in the military were a last resort for many, especially with the distinct lack of wars in the last five years. Most recruits were sent to outposts at the far reaches of their home countries more out of appearance than anything else; the world was too interconnected economically and ethnically to allow for any real wars – at least that’s what Jean had been told, but he was coming to believe anything he had been fed since childhood less and less since arriving here. Military jobs were thankless and held none of the prestige that police officers had. And ten or more years ago, the last of the “uncivilized” population was being taken care of. Jean could only imagine what Levi – probably only a teenager at the time – had seen. 

“You think what they taught you in school was bad, but it was nothing like what they really saw. Or did,” Armin said quietly. 

Jean didn’t know what to say to that. He was gripped once again by the anger he had felt in the library. They arrived in the Cavern before it could sink too deeply though. Jean wasn’t sure what he had been expecting – he had never set foot outside the city before after all – but it wasn’t the enormous, high ceilinged hollow they entered. 

Armin had called it the Cavern so Jean had pictured something with rock walls and dim lighting and a few rows of something green, but nothing like this. The walls along the outer edge were indeed rock, but the ceiling had been modified with large panels that mimicked a bright, sunny day, complete with the sun’s warmth. There were several different patches of green, some very tall, some sticking only a few inches above the ground. He took a deep breath, the unfamiliar scent filling his nose. But it wasn’t unpleasant. It was…good. 

“The word you’re looking for is earthy,” Armin said and there was a strange note of pride in his voice. Jean looked at him, confused. 

“The smell. It’s the smell of soil,” the blond explained. Jean nodded absently, taking it all in. 

“I bet you’ve never seen this much green in your life, huh?” a tall brunette girl walked up to them from across the room. 

“You must be the new guy. I’m Sasha,” she said, dusting some brown residue off her hand before holding it out to shake.

“Jean,” he introduced himself. 

“This is-” 

“Pretty cool, right? Nothing like that lab grown shit they feed you in the cities. This here’s the real deal,” she said with a grin. There was something strange about the way she spoke, almost like she had an accent, which was strange as there was very little in the way of local dialects these days.

_“She grew up off the grid. There’re plenty of local dialects outside the cities,”_ Armin linked to him and once again Jean got the feeling that Armin could read his mind. And also that he was more at ease. So Sasha was someone he trusted. Jean made a mental note of that and tucked it away. 

“Anyways, while you and Armin are doing all your training, you’ll work here too, but I’m guessing Eren probably told you that.” 

“Eren?” 

“Oh yeah, you should hear all the comments he’s been linking us. He thinks your face looks stupid,” she said and her tone was so friendly and casual that Jean had no idea whether she was trying to be insulting, or just plain honest. 

“Well I think that’ll conclude our tour for now,” Armin said hastily. 

“Come on Jean, we shouldn’t keep the Commander waiting,” he said, steering Jean away with surprising force. It was a short walk from the Cavern down another hallway, a turn, and then they were standing outside a door. 

“I’ll…leave you here,” Armin said. 

“Link me when you’re done and I’ll show you back to the barracks if you need.” 

“You’re not coming?” Armin shook his head but didn’t elaborate, so Jean went in alone. 

The man sitting in the chair staring down at some holo-screens was clearly older than Jean, but not as old as he might’ve guessed. He was very absorbed in whatever he was doing, so much so that Jean had to clear his throat to get his attention. 

“You wanted to see me, uh, sir?” Jean asked, unsure how to address him. 

“No need to be so formal. This isn’t the military or the police,” Erwin said, flicking his holo-screen back to its home board on the wall where it fit in like a piece to a puzzle. 

“So. How are you adjusting?” he asked. Jean scoffed. 

“What is this, a psych eval? I’m fine,” he said with as little contempt in his voice as he could manage. Erwin looked up at him calmly. 

“No, it’s not a psych eval, it’s a question. I just want to know that you can handle moving on and starting your training with us. If not, you can take some time until you are,” Erwin explained. 

“I’m fine. I’m ready to get going on this.” 

“On what, exactly? Avenging your friend’s death?” 

“I thought you said this wasn’t a psych eval.” Erwin inclined his head. 

“Perhaps I wasn’t quite forthcoming. I need to make sure that your head is in the right place for this.” 

“Wasn’t it when you brought me in?” 

“Yes, but obviously some things have changed since then, and I thought this method might be preferable to letting Hanji get ahold of you,” Erwin said with something of a smile on his face. Jean had to admit he wasn’t wrong. 

“Alright, so let’s talk.” And they did. For how long he couldn’t say but Erwin seemed satisfied when they were done. He didn’t kick Jean out anyways. Jean stood to go and then hesitated. 

“I do have a question for you. About Armin. Is he…stable?” Erwin raised an eyebrow. 

“No less than you or I. Why?” Jean shrugged. 

“I just met him and all but he seems…off. I can’t get a read on him, one minute he seems fine and the next…” Erwin fixed him with a very pointed look. 

“Armin is an excellent asset and is very confident in many ways. In himself and new people is not always one of them, which is easily his greatest flaw. But if you’re asking if he has some sort of mental illness, I can assure you he doesn’t. You don’t have to worry about his ability to function as your partner.” 

Not even Jean could argue with the finality of his tone. 

Jean found Armin waiting outside the office for him, much to his surprise. 

“Have you been standing out there this whole time?” he asked. Armin shook his head. 

“Just the last few minutes. The conversations are different, but the timetables are about the same. Yours took three minutes less than mine did,” Armin admitted.

“Huh. Good to know,” he said, stifling a yawn. Suddenly he was exhausted, and not just physically, but mentally as well. 

“It’s no wonder you’re tired. It’s been a long day,” Armin said. 

“That’s an understatement,” Jean muttered.

“No…no it’s really not,” Armin said, his tone quizzical. Jean raised an eyebrow.

“I was…being sarcastic.” 

“Oh. Right. I knew that.” Jean gave a little laugh. 

“What are you laughing at?” Armin demanded. 

“You, obviously.” 

“I know that. Why? Because I didn’t realize you were being sarcastic?” Jean shrugged. 

“No, not really. It’s more like…like I said earlier. I’m glad you don’t know everything about me. It makes it more even,” 

“Oh right. Well, we should get some sleep. We’re supposed to start training tomorrow,” Armin said leading Jean into their bunk. 

“Well um…good night Jean. Breakfast is at seven.” 

“Goodnight Armin. And for the record, thanks for keeping your promise,” Jean said, clearing his throat a little awkwardly as he readied himself for bed. He was very aware of Armin’s on him. 

“You’re welcome Jean. We’re partners right? That’s how it works.” 

“Yeah. See you in the morning.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! Like I said, I apologize for the delay. I should be able to keep up to a regular schedule from now on. Hopefully you all enjoy the update! Thanks for sticking with me through that rough patch!


	5. Update notice

Okay, so here's the deal. Shortly after starting this story I not only lost any and all inspiration I had with it, but realized that my talents lie in other area. Namely slice of life and character development. While I'm not writing just to see how many people I can get to read my stories, I've noticed a distinct lack of interest in this story compared to my previous Jearmin fic, and I have no doubt that's due to the quality of my writing, or lack thereof. Fear not, this is not a plea for compliments or a notice of retirement. I've simply decided that this work will no longer be the focus of my writing. I may continue to work on it in the future, and perhaps update it all at once if and when I finish it. In the mean time, I've got some other stories cooking that I plan to work on actively and one of which I'm already a few chapters into writing (which can be found  [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3108377/chapters/6734345)). I'm sorry for those of you who were following this with interest and I appreciate your understanding and patience. Thanks for checking in!


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